Attached Link: Preview Screenshot

At the moment I'm working on a number of game projects. One of them is a tycoon type game set in space. Basically you have to construct a city and manage it and achieve a different goal in each level. A number of robots and air & ground units are at your disposal, each of them preforming a different task. Some build, others repair, some trade and others collect materials (metals, stone and so on) needed for the mission.

The game has an isometric view and uses rendered images and movies. Carrara 5 Standard with TransPoser is being used to construct, animate and render all of the buildings, ground and air units, landscapes and so on.

Carrara is perfect for this job and has improved my workflow a lot. Before I needed to switch between different applications, but thanks to Carrara's ability to import poser models directly, create landscapes, good animation features and excellent modeling tools, I'm not in need anymore of a number of applications to complete the job. All the tools needed in one application and that one doing it excellent, is a huge improvement and joy.

Also the ability of Carrara to switch to different camara types (from conical to isometric to spherical) is marvelous.

I'm very content with using Carrara 5 ST in game design, that's the main purpose I purchased it. Attached you'll find a preview screenshot of the game. The game is nowhere near being finished, just wanted to show you all what I'm using Carrara for.

I'm sure some of you will recognize some of the models used in this screenshot. Dystopia for the city blocks (the city shown is not finished yet, the user can build many more additions to it) and a number of DAZ models for the air-units. The blueish/purple tentacle thingy is an electrical storm hitting this city, it has not been created with Carrara.

 

Imo, Carrara rocks! It saves me lot's of time and the rendering capacity is making my rendered items for the game much better then before.

That looks excellent.  Carrara does, indeed, rock.

I'll be interested to follow how the project goes for you.

• Dex

Thanks! I'll be adding screenshots to this thread as the project advances, but the real work will start after my current project is finished and the base engine for the game has been developped.

Gee, I couldn't see the image.  Did you remove it already?

Attached Link: The Image

No I didn't.... the links have changed due to the new galleries.

Cool!  :biggrin:

Very cool! I am glad to see that Carrara is being used in game development. I like the building designs -- they sort of remind me of a fusion of SimCity and Star Wars.  I really dig the image! Please keep us posted on the game development, and let us know if you need any beta testers :)

 

Thanks! I'm working on and off on this game, it's my redundant time project.  But as soon as I finish the game I'm working on right now, I'll be able to put a lot more time into the game.

At  the moment I'm working out the storybook for the game, once that is done I'll be able to set up the basic engine for the game which controls the building of structures & units, controls the movement of units and so on. A few years back I did a RTS game, so I may use some of it in this game.

But while I'm working on these things, I do work on items for the game, to have some variety in the work. I'm hoping to show a new screenshot next week or the week after.

Well, here's the update......on the game progress.

Worked out the vehicle movement by now. I'm working on the vehicles at the moment and the structures that use them. The vehicles are made with G.V.C.S. Core Package.

In the pics you see a gather vehicle (the one highlighted) bringing in collected items to the gathering station. The gather vehicle collects raw materials which are proccessed in the gathering station to use for fuel, building of structures, vehicles and so on.

The city you see in the images are Dystopia, the gathering station is Olympus Mons. The next to the landing pad is mine, I'm going to work on more structures for the game. It will be a mix of own design and poser content.

Here's the second image. The gather vehicle is now in the gathering station.

As you see the doors are opened now. A number of the buildings will animated when they are in use.

kewl.  Lots of fun watching your progress.  Are you coding in C++? or something else? why not do a short tutorial that shows off your workflow, perhaps with a bit of detail of what to do in Carrera, like the animation part....  Not the coding part of course - I'm using Flash, and have found good info on creating isometric games using Flash at http://www.kirupa.com/ which are pretty decent tuts, by the way....

I am a bit curious....are these going to be like movie scenes? I ask because I didn't think you could distribute any mesh form of most 3d content. Just 2d. Obviously, you could use them for your own use.

ren_mem, it's all 2D. I know you can't redistribute any 3D mesh. All of the items you see in the pictures have been made from rendered images and rendered sequences images.

Hi, nice work on the isometric graphics! I'm planning a game with a isometric tile engine also and was wondering how to set up the camera in Carrara correctly for this? I've already tried this in Vue but Vue has no isometric camera and it seems a bit more difficult to get the right result there.
So I was wondering if anyone has some useful hints for this?

Thanks,
pixel

I'm planning a game with a isometric tile engine also and was wondering how to set up the camera in Carrara correctly for this?

Select your main camera. Now on the right sites, you've got the properties window for the camera with different tabs. Select the general tab. Second section in this tab called Camera: right afte that you'll see the work conical. There's a double arrow behind it, pointing down. Click on it and a drop down menu will appear. Now select isometric and you're set.

I've already tried this in Vue but Vue has no isometric camera and it seems a bit more difficult to get the right result there.

I haven't tried this in Vue, but it should be possible also, it work in any other 3D application that doesn't have isometric camera settings:

Use an orthagonal view (such as Front or top). Then all you do is rotate your object 45 degrees around the X-Axis and any amount of degrees needed around the Y-Axis (or Z-Axis with some apps).  For buildings you set the Y-axis to 45,135,225 or 315 degrees depending on the view you need.

 

Quote - ...I ask because I didn't think you could distribute any mesh form of most 3d content. Just 2d. Obviously, you could use them for your own use.

Hey ren_mem... can you elaborate on this a bit? Are there license limitations to 3d content that we create ourselves, using Carrara? I hope I didn't I fall asleep while reading the End-user agreement... but anything is possible. Say it isn't so!

And please, break it to me gently.

 

 

Thanks a lot for explaining this **aeilkema! I hadn't thought about the idea of rotating the object in an orthogonal view.

@****Boogeyman: I think what he meant was that the dystopian city blocks are not allowed to be re-distributed as 3D objects. It would make no sense of your own Carrara creations had such a limitation.

**

Boogeyman, you can use your own creations for whatever you like, there's no restrictions on that.

The only thing that cab be restricted in use is items that you buy online or downbload for free. Almost all of the Poser content cannot be distributed as 3D objects, the merchant wants to protect his/her 3D objects and only allows renders to be exported.

pixelsquash, you're welcome. I've submitted a tutorial at DAZ and with E-Frontier, showing how to use this technique in Poser and other applications.

Phew! That's good news. Thanks for the clarification pixelsquash and aeilkema... I really appreciate it :)

...and please keep those game updates coming. I really enjoy reading about your progress!